Selected and Reviewed by Andrew Eales
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I have previously heaped praise on the Schott Student Edition, a set of tastefully produced and superbly edited publications presenting core and lesser-known pedagogic repertoire in an attractive, affordable and contemporary format for today’s learners.
Designed for use in instrumental teaching, with titles projected to range from easy beginner music to more advanced repertoire, this is a superb series, and you can browse my previous reviews here.
Schott Music have recently added several interesting new titles to the series, and I will be looking at each in turn over the coming weeks.
One of the undoubted highlights, and the subject of this review, the much-respected editor Monika Twelsiek has selected twelve delicious highlights from Cécile Chaminade’s Album des enfants to delight today’s learners…
Discovering Chaminade
Cécile Chaminade (1857-1944) was born into a wealthy bourgeois family, and spent her childhood growing up in the artists’ quarter of Montparnasse in Paris. Her neighbours included the composer Georges Bizet, who is said to have called her ‘mon petit Mozart’ upon hearing her childhood compositions.
Indeed, Chaminade’s exceptional talent was apparent from an early age, and she went on to study piano and composition with the most renowned teachers at the Paris Conservatoire, including Felix Le Couppey, Augustin Savard, Antoine Marmontel, and Benjamin Godard. She gave her first piano recital aged 18, and her first composition was published in 1876, the following year.
Chaminade was soon an international star with an enthusiastic fan following. Her European tours took in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Greece, Turkey, and England, where she was invited by Queen Victoria to play for her at Windsor. She went on to tour Canada and the USA, where hundreds of Chaminade Clubs had been set up even before her first visit.
In her Preface to this new edition, Monika Twelsiek explains,
“Chaminade was a self-confident, emancipated woman who pursued her career and valued her financial independence. She remained childless. In 1901, at the age of 44, she married the music publisher Louis Mathieu Carbonel, 20 years her senior, an understanding man who accompanied her on her travels, advised and supported her. She spent six happy years with him until his sudden death.”
Chaminade composed more than 400 works, around half of them for piano. Most were published in her lifetime, and many were tremendously popular, particularly her songs and piano pieces.
Sadly however, the First World War ended her music career. Travelling was hardly possible, and she took over the management of a hospital for wounded soldiers. She subsequently withdrew from public life, and struggled with illness in later life. She died in Monte Carlo in 1944, lonely and withdrawn.
Album des enfants
Chaminade never taught the piano, but many of her compositions were conceived for teaching, for students and amateur players. Her Album des enfants originally appeared in two volumes, Opus 123 (published in 1906) and opus 126 (which followed in 1907), each comprising twelve pieces suitable for intermediate players (around UK Grades 3-6, but predominantly 4-5).
Twelsiek introduces them,
“The pieces are a discovery. They are not too long, have a clear form, catchy melodies and colourful harmonies. There are instructions on character, tempo and dynamics. The sequences of movements are fun, some pieces have a great effect, they sound more difficult than they are. Many titles stimulate the imagination, their moods are easy to grasp but not childish. They are therefore also very suitable for teaching young people and adults…”
If I have a minor complaint with this publication, it is that the selection is limited to six of the twelve pieces from each of the original sets, in other words, this volume only includes 12 of the original 24 pieces.
It is a goal of the Schott Student Edition series not to overwhelm the player with too much material, but it can only be a matter of time before another publisher presents a complete edition that will likely have wider appeal.
That said, Twelsiek’s selection is a superbly well-judged one, which omits a few weaker pieces, while showcasing the wide variety of styles offered by Chaminade’s original collections:
- Prélude
- Gavotte
- Barcarolle
- Orientale
- Tarantelle
- Marche Russe
- Idylle
- Aubade
- Rigaudon
- Élégie
- Villanelle
- Conte de Fées
Of these pieces, the Idylle is perhaps the most well-known, having appeared in ABRSM’s Grade 4 lists twice, as well as in my own anthology The Joy of Graded Piano, Grade 4 (full details here). The poignant Elegie has previously been a Grade 6 piece.
Other favourites include the ingenious Gavotte, Barcarolle, and Villanelle, while the delirious Tarantelle (which seems to me reminiscent of Saint-Saëns’ Danse Macabre) would surely make an exciting student recital piece.
More about the edition
Schott’s Student Edition series seems to me to rather perfectly hit the spot, delivering tastefully presented and freshly engraved scores that benefit from attentive editing, well-considered fingering suggestions, and spacious notation presented on cream paper.
An added and valuable bonus, extensive Teaching Notes appear in English and German, and in this case take up three and a half pages in each language. There is also a full page Preface outlining the composer’s story.
These provide an informative, well-written, and accessible resource that will be equally welcomed by adult players, older learners, and teachers working with younger students.
Closing Thoughts
Twelsiek relates that in a letter to the American music critic Irving Schwerké dated 23 April 1942, Chaminade expressed,
“the hope that she would not be forgotten, that she would live in the heart and memory of those who understood her.”
It is undoubtedly a shame that, in the decades after her death, Chaminade’s hugely popular music largely disappeared from view, and to our gain that it is finally reemerging into the spotlight.
And just as her best concert works are beginning to reappear in the repertoire, so too these superbly crafted and memorable student piano pieces will, we must hope, introduce her name to another generation of musicians. This publication is a gem, and not to be missed.
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